Video surveillance systems normally include a recorder for recording the video captured by the surveillance cameras. Initially, videocassette recorders were used for recording this data; however, the tapes could only be searched by having personnel review the tapes to find the portion of interest. This process was extremely time consuming and labor intensive. The development of digital video recorders improved the searching process with the use of algorithms to search for specific items, such as when an item has disappeared from the area being viewed by the video camera. However, the ability to quickly and easily find and track moving objects within a prescribed area contained within a video clip has not significantly improved. The process still requires personnel to review the video as with VCR tapes. Accordingly, there has been a long felt need in the art for a system and method of quickly searching through recorded video data to locate the moving objects and video of interest.
Merchandising within a retail store location involves marketing the right merchandise at the right place, at the right time, in the right quantities, and at the right price. Retail stores create planograms of shelf locations for the placement of products on shelves. They further create floor plans for the location of aisles and the direction of traffic flow through the store. Endcaps on aisles are a favor location for the merchandising of products. The stores are able to price the placement of products on certain shelves and endcaps relative to the desirability of those locations. For example, placement of products on shelves at eye level is more expensive than placement of the products on the bottom shelves near the floor. Similarly, endcaps near the front the store are more desirable than endcaps at the rear of the store.
Presently, there exist few means of quantitatively measuring the effectiveness of particular floor plans, planograms, endcap placement or other merchandising methods. Sales from the product from these locations are one gross means of determining the desirability and therefore the price of a particular location. Accordingly, there has been a long felt need in the art for a method and system for quantitatively measuring the desirability of locations within a retail location.